9 Replies Latest reply: Jan 7, 2014 12:53 PM by trshaner RSS

    My photos look significantly better on a Mac

    Heirloom Bob Community Member

      I took some wedding photos recently and had the opportunity to see  them on a Mac, after doing all my post processing on my PC, with what I  thought was decently calibrated monitors (Huey Pro), Color Space  ProPhoto RGB and 16 bits for Lightroom 5. For Photoshop CS6 I have sRGB  for a Working Space (this was a surprise because I thought it was set to  ProPhoto RGB). The edits I did on the wedding photos however were all  done in Lightroom.

       

      I am not wanting this to become  a PC versus Mac arguement but wonder if it's possible to replicate the  image quality one sees on a Mac versus a PC? The difference was so  great, I was a walking advertisment to go out and buy a Mac!

       

      I  did not print a copy of the shot but I would be very interested in  printing off a copy from my PC and then printing the same on the Mac,  fully realizing that the printers are different but again, I have a  Canon Pixma Pro 9000 on my PC the printer on the Mac is an HP all in one  but I am interested if there is any difference. I would hope the output  on my Canon would be better than on the HP.

       

      I will post this question in the Photoshop Forum as well.

       

      Any comments?

        • 1. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
          RikkFlohr CommunityMVP

          $500 PC with a $50 Monitor against a Retina MBP?

          $2500 EIZO Monitor on a high-end PC vs a Macbook Air?

           

          Without knowing anything about the two systems I would say you have near-zero basis for comparison.

           

          Sun shining in the window on one and not the other? I could go on…

          • 2. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
            trshaner Community Member

            It's very difficult to make accurate A/B "visual" comparisons even with two systems side-by side, let alone at different physical locations.

             

            To make a true A/B comparison both systems must be using the same monitor type and be calibrated the same (120 cd/M2, D65, 2.2 Gamma). A good comparison are the display modes provided on many HD TVs, such as Dynamic, Standard, and Movie modes.The Dynamic mode applies higher brightness, contrast, and color saturation, which may appear "better." If the Mac's monitor was NOT calibrated it probably is set to much higher brightness than your monitor, which alone would make the image appear "better."

             

            If your objective is to print images edited in LR than it is imperative that you use a monitor calibrated to ~120cd/M2, D65, 2.2 Gama. Setting the monitor to a higher brightness typically seen out-of-the-box will cause you to edit your images in LR such that they print dark.

             

            http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml

             

            If you want to view your images so they look "better" output to a large 1080p HD TV, which you can adjust as bright, contrasty and color saturated as you want to! But don't do that to your LR editing monitor. Most graphics adapters allow connecting dual monitors and if yours has a 2nd DVI port (or HDMI port) you can buy a cheap DVI to HDMI cable and run both your computer monitor and an HD TV simultaneously.

            • 3. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
              twenty_one Community Member

              I usually try not to repeat what has been said well enough by others, but this is such an obvious red herring that I simply have to.

               

              The piece of hardware that matters is the monitor, and how it is calibrated vs. the viewing conditions. You'd be surprised.

              • 4. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                Heirloom Bob Community Member

                I understand, but is it possible to have my photos look as good on my PC monitor as they are on the high end Mac monitor? I understand the differences in calibration but I also realize the Mac monitor is a high end unit. Is this something that I can get for my PC?

                 

                trshaner: ~120cd/M2, D65, 2.2 Gamma. Huey Pro has my color temperature at D65 and Gamma at 2,20. What is the 120cd/M2?

                • 5. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                  elie-d Community Member

                  120 candelas per square meter is the brightness of the white point. Usually the recommended brightness for a monitor used for photo editing in "average" room lighting, whatever average is.

                  • 6. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                    trshaner Community Member

                    Heirloom Bob wrote:

                    I understand, but is it possible to have my photos look as good on my PC monitor as they are on the high end Mac monitor?

                    What monitor are you using and what Mac monitor or Mac system are you comparing it to?

                     

                    Heirloom Bob wrote:

                    trshaner: ~120cd/M2, D65, 2.2 Gamma. Huey Pro has my color temperature at D65 and Gamma at 2,20. What is the 120cd/M2?

                    Apparently the Huey Pro does not allow user adjustment of the Luminance level:

                     

                    http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/pantone_huey.htm#success

                     

                    Your monitor's Luminance level is probably being set too high for print matching, which is a separate issue from  the Mac comparison. How do your prints from the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 look when printed from inside LR?

                    • 7. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                      b2martin_a Community Member

                      120cd/M2 is the brightness and is the recommended setting, but I use 100cd/M2 because my prints are too dark if my monitor is set to the 120cd/M2 value. 

                       

                      Your images should look the same on the PC if you have the same monitor as the Mac or an equivalent and it is calibrated the same as the one on the Mac.

                      • 8. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                        Heirloom Bob Community Member

                        Just printed a test print from LR. One using Canon Pro 900 SP1 profile and one using Managed by Printer Profile. Both are quite acceptable. However the one I printed from PS CS6 looks Too dark, too cool and too green.

                        • 9. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
                          trshaner Community Member

                          If the print matches what you see onscreen inside LR, AND you're not using the Birghtness or Contrast controls in LR's Print> Color Management panel, then you have a good Luminace level  "ambient light" level for whatever xxxcd/M2 your monitor is set to.

                           

                          120cd/M2 is usually a good level for most lighting conditions, but I use 100cd/M2 because 120cd/M2 is too high for the low-level lighting used at my workstation.

                           

                          Heirloom Bob wrote:

                           

                          Just printed a test print from LR. One using Canon Pro 900 SP1 profile and one using Managed by Printer Profile. Both are quite acceptable. However the one I printed from PS CS6 looks Too dark, too cool and too green.

                          Are you using 'Managed by Photoshop' using the Canon printer profiles AND color management disabled in the Printer driver settings?